(Newser)
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Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has done nothing to steady its economy or deter terrorism, Bret Stephens notes in the Wall Street Journal—so why not sell it to the West? Pakistan has already lobbied for economic aid; for eliminating “its entire nuclear stockpile and the industrial base that sustains it,” Stephens writes, “the US and other Western donors would agree to a $100 billion economic package.”

Many countries have determined that the risks of an arsenal don’t justify uncertain rewards. “There’s no compelling reason Mr. Zardari and his military brass shouldn't reach the same conclusion,” Stephens continues, “assuming excellent terms and desperate circumstances.” Not all Pakistanis would agree, but those “who have subsisted on a diet of leaves and grass so Pakistan could have its bomb might take a more pragmatic view.”